Get fresh air adventures delivered to your inbox!

Dreck the Halls: Blizzard takes our snow away

Well, the great Blizzard of ’09 rolled through Minnesota. Feet of snow were dumped across the region, and snowlovers across the North Star state awoke Christmas morning to a wintry dreamscape. Except for us, right here on the shores of Lake Superior. We woke up to Dreck.

Now Dreck is a German word, but it’s an onomatopoeia…it sounds like what it is: garbage.

The big snow system came, but the warmer open waters of the lake transformed what should have been 20 inches of snow into rain or quick-melting slush.

It rained all day, with a driving wind and huge waves off the lake.

We ended up with less snow than before the storm, thank you very much STUPID Lake Superior!

I walked down the windy beach naming what I saw, but in a language that made it feel so much better. Thank God for German, because just by naming the stuff I felt as relieved as if I were cussing.

Dreck.Matsch.SchmiereSchlamm.

(That’s:Mud.Mush.Slime.Slush.)

I didn’t even need real German profanity. Scheisse sounded too good for this.

Just a few blocks away from the lake, just uphill and away from STUPID Lake Superior less than a mile, the snow piled up. We’ll be skiing Duluth ski trails this week.

Bummer. Down here in the Cities, we did’t get quite as much as I wanted and most of it turned slushy with Xmas rain. At least, you still have a place to go and ski. Our slush has turned to hard ice stuff, leaving undesirable ski conditions. Enjoy the trails!